We’ve got seats for bums for Andrew
Where our Members long to go and watch the stars on nights like this
Got the numbers right for Andrew
He’s thumbed ‘em through himself its costly running ‘round the park
There’s been countless papers studies feasibilities, the best he’s read so far

But nothing yet from Andrew
It seems his mind is made ‘Good Old West Sydney’ tops the list
But do they know the game there Andrew
Cause there’s many down The Apple Isle think you’re taking the piss
We’ve played the game for years outlined our vision clearly Tassie’s a right to this

But it’s all up in the air we might when the time is right for Andrew
Although it’s blinding there for you and me it’s a mystery for Andrew
C.E.O Demetriou we’re your best bet
Can we get a map of Tassie for the brand and then find forty men for Andrew

But Ando says to Andrew
“Did you hear the one ‘bout ‘3 Tasmanians walk into a bar’”
And it’s tailor-made for Andrew
He knows this punch line “6 beers” they both begin to laugh
But seriously Andrew if it’s sides your pickin’ then Tassie’s done enough

And I feel something in the air tonight the time is right for Andrew
To put a side in there for you and me and make history for Andrew
C E O Demetriou we’re your best bet (Where you gonna get)
So many thousand screamin’ footy fans wanting forty men for Andrew
Not to mention all the champions we already send ‘Roarin’ Forties Men’ to Andrew
We’ll get Rocket Eade to coach, Benny Gale, Disco Roach, Tassie Johnson
Arthur Hodgson and Verdun Howell, Steven Febey, Barry Lawrence
Darrel Baldock, Ian Stewart, Alistair Lynch, John Greening and Percy Jones, Paul Williams, Peter Hudson, Tiger Crosswell, Royce Hart, Darrin Pritchard, Matty Richardson

Song List

• 01 Solomon Fisk
• 02 Buttercup
• 03 Ticket to Loxley
• 04 Paddymelon Fisk
• 05 Random Acts of Kindness
• 06 Time on your Hands
• 07 Minds like a Garden
• 08 Green Thumb

A haunting backing vocal compliments selected songs and adds to the sound scape of these numbers. Shane appears to have mastered the art of creating a precise mood in his music. He has the ability to project a feeling through his guitar and voice, as well as a note or melody. Somewhat hypnotic at times, this CD has the ability to trap you in its spell despite the most pressing tasks at hand.

This CD sings to your heart and speaks to your head. It is truly a whole of mind, body and spirit experience that I urge everyone to touch and feel for themselves. Below, I have done my best to interpret the songs and their respective messages. This is my opinion only and everyone is welcome to discuss this further via the home page.

1. Passenger
An up-beat number strummed on the guitar. Complimented with haunting backing vocals, this song speaks of living life in the moment and discovering the real you, which may or may not be hidden deep inside yourself. We are small in respect to the universe and time, so we should live and think everything we can while we are here.

2. Happiness
Strummed on the guitar with perhaps a phaser, chorus effect to create an eerie feel. This is rumoured to be in relation to Martin Bryant and if understood in this way, this song is a moving look through the keyhole to madness. This song is bravely written and emotionally challenging, encore!

3. Things I Never Show
A wonderful fingerpick on the guitar sets the scene yet again. Shane truly is a master of his instrument. Assisted by some soulful backing vocals, the sound scape is created masterfully. You are encouraged to go and seek true love, to embrace true love as life itself.

4. Open Up Your Mind
Never has a song title been so explanatory of the song. Except for maybe Oh My God. Lead guitar assists in setting the mood for this little gem, one of my favourites. “You’re just walkin’ by the windows that line your life. You should stop a while and look outside.” Says it all I think, worth the admission price on it’s own, it is both a thought provoking and emotionally challenging piece of literature. Author, author.

5. The Way
The title track is both cheeky and deeply frightening. A short but sweet finger picked number. It is minimalist in both music and lyrics, yet speaks louder than most other songs on this CD. Cheeky, “I race rocking chairs not too far from here”. Frightening in the fact that it cuts to the truth of some very important issues in our world today.

6. Thick Enough
An upbeat number strummed and picking bass notes. This is all about “broken love”. The writer appears to be confused by his rulers’ interpretation of “love”, and probably “justice” and “freedom”, but I will leave it to Shane to elaborate.

7. Buttercup Feelin
A singing guitar strum accompanies this floating, dreamy piece. Again the mood begets the song, which speaks to me of drug use, and the trade off against future judgement. The song itself is drug enough for me at the moment. A real toe tapper and thought stimulator.

8. Less Zen
Rhythmic strumming sets a solis base for this solid number. Shane asks us to use our third eye. Perhaps this is not a bad idea in the tumultuous world of today. Listen and learn, this man is a poet with a very sound message.

9. Dear Nick Drake
A tribute to the obvious, strummed out briskly on the guitar. I am not aware of Nick Drake but from the song glean that he is/was a musician/writer of some note (I will find out and post on this page). How well has Shane Pullen got a handle on the language most of us struggle with; “You got a skin too few”, “…we breathed your music in…” Another one of my favourites, play on, play on.

10. 3 Days
A harsh sounding guitar strum sets the scene for a song that looks into a harsh topic. Prisoner reform is a subject that often divides communities and indeed, society as a whole. As is often the case, few people have an understanding of the individual who is most affected in these cases. One of the few is Shane Pullen, who appears to have an insight into parts of life most don’t even realise exist.

11. Love Song
I guess it is no surprise that when Shane Pullen puts pen to paper regarding love he makes the statement with every sinew of the piece. This guitar strum and pick is as provocative and speaks the words of the song with it’s feeling. The music in this number has a heart and soul of it’s own. This love song explores the life long commitment and discovery that is love. “Life is a song for lovers of life” “So lovers of life. Live life in a song”, enough said.

12. Oh My God
I am honoured and somewhat embarrassed to write a review of this particular song. I am tingling and tearing up as I prepare to write this piece. This song deserves an entire review in it’s own right, and I am humbled by it’s brilliance and emotion. A soft finger pick on the guitar and the journey begins. This song is the inspiration behind “a man screaming as softly as he can.” Shane Pullen takes 4 minutes and 25 seconds of your time and makes you feel like you have been to heaven and hell and back. The scary thing about this trip is that it could be done for real without ever needing to leave this dimension. Listen to the passionate plea for peace in the name of all gods. Listen to the anomaly/oxymoron that is “religious war”.

Just think
Skeet

It is a particular pity for such people, not because they’ve missed out on a master solo guitar entertainer’s deft weaving of musical styles, from the sparsest minimalism to the closest harmonies and from elegantly simple strummed rhythms to finger picking with the complexity of nature. And not because they’ve missed out on a musicianship so refined as to make this all look and feel deceptively easy when he launches you away with the mood he manages to convey for each piece. Reasons enough for anyone to consider finding a better rock to live under, yet this is but the tip of the iceberg. Despite the (truly rich) rewards of Shane’s years of hard yakka and experience, his significant prowess as a musician is just the icing on the cake, and like sex, the icing can be most enticing indeed, but the true bounty lies much deeper than this.

The greatest gift in Shane’s performances and recordings are his ideas – Shane’s songs are not merely plucked from his own soul, he has poured out the soul of a world that has forgotten how to voice its most primal grief’s. In the charade of bureaucracy and new-speak we find ourselves penned in, Shane has managed to unveil the façade and shed more than a little light upon the nature of our unease with modern life. His uncanny knack for hitting the nail right on the head can sometimes feel like he’s got you straight between the eyes and there’s a spine-shiver or two for anyone regardless of their sensitivities. For the less than perfect amongst us, Shane provides a veritable banquet for thought as he invites us to consider in turn our relations with those we share life with and the ramifications of how we choose to conduct them, how we impact on (or fail to intervene for) the lives of those we know nothing about, the value (or lack thereof) of obsession with the human condition, our duty to persevere un-distracted by the charlatans that would hoodwink us, the very nature of Love itself and our relationship with the Divine.

It is technically possible to merely place one of Shane’s recordings on the stereo and close your heart to the messages therein. With the seemingly endless variety of styles and techniques he employs there is no danger of anyone getting bored, in fact he could be considered to be a perfect party musician and i’ve seen his performances and not been suprised at all to hear the acclaim his musicianship earns. But it would be a pity indeed to be that close to greatness, just to walk on past ignorant of the deeper experience. By my reckoning it would be pretty hard to over emphasise the rewards waiting to be discovered for those willing to think about what Shane Pullen has to say. If you still rank amongst those yet to enjoy his gifts then get out and watch him play live if you can, otherwise get hold of an album and see what i mean. Then spread the word.

Review from PLK

At the time the Celtic Club was established in 1887, the Home Rule Campaign in Ireland was at an all time low. There was every indication for Home Rule sympathizers that that ideal would remain unrealized for many generations to come.

On September 20th, 1887, at the Imperial Hotel, Bourke Street in a rather more colorful Melbourne of top hats and morning suits, of gas lamps and hansom cabs, and hotels that did not clear their bars before midnight, the Celtic Club was born. It was the year of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and the first Colonial Conference in London of delegates from each of the self-governing British Colonies.

The late Dr M. O’Sullivan presided at the first meeting of the provisional committee to establish the Club and from the beginning, its raison d’être was to unite, regardless of creed or Australian party politics, men who sympathized with Ireland’s aspirations for Home Rule.

In the Melbourne of the late 1880s, Ireland’s aspirations for self- government was supported by many people without Irish ancestry. As a result, the Club was called the “Celtic” Club rather than “Irish” for the specific intention of providing a meeting place for those people who supported the Home Rule Movement. As a result, the membership over the years has been representative of practically all Celts – Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish and Breton however, understandably, the balance is Irish or of Irish descent.

From the beginning, the Club’s constitution declared that it was to be “strictly and irrevocably” nonsectarian and non-political in the sense that it did not support any specific Australian political party.

On the rear wall of the Tara Bar is a magnificent collage painting that was designed to celebrate the foundation of the Club. In each of the four corners of the collage is one of the four ancient provinces of Ireland and in the middle top is an artist’s representation of the old Irish Parliament facing Trinity College, the Parliament of Grattan that was abandoned after the Act of Union in 1801. The centerpiece is the Club emblem that shows the Southern Cross above a harp and shamrock and the Latin motto “Pro Patria et Pro Libertate” that proclaims the aspirations of the founders. Underneath is a picaresque scene of the Irish countryside and below it two emblems side by side: Erin Go Bragh and Advance Australia Fair. Dotted around the collage are photographs of the founder, Dr O’Sullivan and a number of early presidents of the Club.

On another wall of the Tara Bar is another early painting that is simply titled “The Men of ‘98″. Depicted in that painting are groups of fighting men led by Fr Murphy of Kilmarnock, a single sword, a pile of stones nearby which are scattered papers. On the left and right hand of the centerpiece are six names and portraits: Wolfe Tone, Michael Dwyer, William Orr, E. Fitzgerald, R. Hamilton-Rowan and Thomas Emmet – the men of ‘98.

To enter the Club is to enter history – of this country, this city and Ireland. Since 1887 the Celtic Club has responded to the needs of its people, the vagaries of politics – local, national and international – and survived the effects of a rapidly changed world. It is to the credit of the Club that it has remained open to all and accommodated conflicts of class, religion and politics with tolerance, affection – and a sense of humour.